Knowing how to set up console versions of folding@home is useful if you plan to use the experimental clients or set things up remotely on multiple computers.
Configuration
You can configure the client by starting it for the first time, or with the -configonly parameter. Without that parameter the client will start folding
as soon as you're done configuring it. So -configonly helps if you want to install a client as a service to make it run in the background instead
of starting to fold right there on your command prompt.
Below you'll see the entire configuration laid out, with clickable details for most settings. Some of the settings are self-explanatory and I'll try to cover the important ones.
# Windows CPU Console Edition ################################################# ############################################################################### Folding@Home Client Version 6.23 http://folding.stanford.edu ############################################################################### ############################################################################### Launch directory: C:\Users\Username\Downloads\Folding@home-Win32-x86-623 Executable: Folding@home-Win32-x86.exe Arguments: -configonly [00:00:00] Configuring Folding@Home... User name [Anonymous]?
If you want to make sure yours is unique, try to search for it at
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=userstats.
Team Number [0]?
Chances are that you came here from the thread at the Something Awful forums so you'd type in 150 to join SAGoons.
Passkey []?
This works much like any other password. Since anyone can use any user name, the passkey was added to make each contributor unique. You can get your own passkey and read more about its uses at
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/getpasskey.py.
Ask before fetching/sending work (no/yes) [no]? Use proxy (yes/no) [no]? Acceptable size of work assignment and work result packets (bigger units may have large memory demands) -- 'small' is <5MB, 'normal' is <10MB, and 'big' is >10MB (small/normal/big) [normal]?
If you have a fairly new computer, a few gigs of RAM and a decent connection, setting this to "big" shouldn't cause problems. You'll get bigger work units and noticeably more points.
Change advanced options (yes/no) [no]? yes Core Priority (idle/low) [idle]?
Since Folding@home shouldn't affect other programs, it runs at the lowest possible priority by default and it really should stay that way.
You may have an actual use for this setting if you decide to run both the SMP and GPU beta clients together. If so, setting the GPU client's priority to low usually gives you the best performance.
CPU usage requested (5-100) [100]?
While the regular client doesn't affect other programs (as it uses 100% of CPU cycles only when nothing else is using it), reducing this might be useful for laptop users. Those tiny fans can get pretty noisy pretty fast, but you might also consider not running Folding@home on most laptops anyway.
Disable highly optimized assembly code (no/yes) [no]?
Pause if battery power is being used (useful for laptops) (no/yes) [no]? Interval, in minutes, between checkpoints (3-30) [15]?
Memory, in MB, to indicate (0000 available) [0000]?
The software requests work units that can fit your memory while they're being run. If you chose to accept bigger work units in an earlier question and run multiple clients on the same machine, then there might be a reason to set a lower value here for each client. Otherwise, the default setting is fine.
Set -advmethods flag always, requesting new advanced scientific cores and/or work units if available (no/yes) [no]?
This setting combined with big work units allows you to receive work units that could be unstable but give lots of points. You should keep an eye out for the client's progress and read the Folding Forum if you use this.
Ignore any deadline information (mainly useful if system clock frequently has errors) (no/yes) [no]? Machine ID (1-16) [1]?
This should be unique for each client running on a single computer.
Launch automatically, install as a service in this directory (yes/no) [no]?
This one does exactly what it says, but note that running some of the experimental clients as a service isn't supported and in some cases not even possible.
The following options require you to restart the client before they take effect Disable CPU affinity lock (no/yes) [no]?
Additional client parameters []?
There are a few parameters but none that are really essential for standard installations. A commonly used parameter is -verbosity 9, which makes the client display and log more status information.
Certain clients require you to use other parameters, such as -smp for the SMP beta versions.
IP address to bind core to (for viewer) []? [00:00:00] - Ask before connecting: No [00:00:00] - User name: YourName (Team 12345) [00:00:00] - User ID: ABCDEF123456789 [00:00:00] - Machine ID: 1 [00:00:00] [00:00:00] -configonly flag given, so exiting.